Author: BeaumontT&L

I have always considered myself a vaguely successful maths teacher and yet I realised last year that I have never actually considered how the students in my classroom think or learn. This changed last year when I started reading educational research and I discovered how I’d probably been going about things all wrong in the classroom for the last 13 years. Specifically I had an interest in memory and cognitive load theory since thinking and learning are such important parts of teaching. One of my main frustrations with the students was their ability to recall information taught in the day, week or month previous. So I began trying to research why and what I could do in the classroom to help. One of the articles I came across said ‘retrieval is a powerful memory modifier’ and this stuck with me and my quest to work on information retrieval techniques began.

One of first things I did was to introduce the idea of exit tickets. Either at the end of one lesson, or the beginning of the next I would set 2/3 questions to see if they had understood and could recall under test conditions the content of a previous lesson. I complete these every 2/3 lessons with all classes years 7-13. The pupils seem to like them as almost instantaneous feedback is given and the pressure of a low stakes quiz is minimal. It is also important to sometimes mix up topics and questions so they have to recall information learnt last week or last term.

What is amazing for me to see is that now this is not only something which is done in the maths department but across subjects. I have included one of mine and a few examples of other exit tickets used across the school.

PE:

Philosophy and Ethics:

Another idea connected to low stakes quizzes was ‘Throwback Thursday’ where each week the students get a questions from ‘last week’, ‘last week’ and ‘last term’. Again, my example is below followed by more examples from other departments.

Languages:

Once a week every class in all years get a 10 question skills check. Straight forward, basic skills check on anything and everything. The topics remain the same for each half term but questions change so they are recalling the information every week for 6 weeks. Again, here is an example of what I use, followed by other examples.

This year there are two strands to our T&L priorities. The first is focused on ‘Quality Answers’ which includes looking at teacher talk, teaching vocabulary, better sentences/ thoughts and modelling/ scaffolding. The second is focused on short term and long term memory and strategies to enhance memory such as retrieval practice.

Our first whole school INSET introduced both of the strands and started to introduce the key ideas. Below is a summary of what was covered, including the presentations used.

Quality Answers (Lead: Michael Tatham, T&L Team)

Session 1: Quality Answers

Michael introduced the importance of vocabulary and being ‘word rich’. He explored how teachers are fundamental in the teaching of tricky but essential vocabulary. A lot of his work has been influenced by Alex Quigley’s book ‘Closing the Vocabulary Gap’ and other academic research.

In the classroom Michael recommended:

Model the academic code in your talk

Use the S E E C model

Teach key words and concepts memorably.

Model the Academic Code in your Talk

This idea emphasises the need for teachers to infuse academic and subject specific vocabulary during teacher talk. As Amy Benjamin states “As teachers, we should be using (or infusing) vocabulary we suspect that our students don’t quite know yet…… If speaking this way becomes a habit, then our students are fortunate: they will be learning new words effortlessly.”

Michael suggested strategies we could use to do this:

Using discourse markers

Talking like an expert

Upgrading or restating words

ABC feedback

Phrasing tentatively

Use the S E E C model for Teaching Vocaulary

Select words to teach and spontaneously teach words

Explain the word well

Explore the word

Consolidate

This idea was explained by Amanda Jones (T&L Team) who examined how she would use the model to teach the term ‘osmosis’.

Teach Key Word and Concepts Memorably

Michael modelled how to teach key vocabulary in a memorable way. He demonstrated the concept using two teachers and then modelled what he would do in the classroom.

To conclude a quote from Phil Beadle was used; “In introducing pupils to higher order language, you are enabling them to convey an increasing complexity of thought, and besides this, you’re also teaching them how talk in the language of the orthodoxy – those who hold the reins of power”.

Long Term Memory (Leads: Alison Benn and Alex Mclean, T&L Team)

The start of the session examined the difference between the working and long term memory. The key learning from the introduction was the Attention, Encoding, Storage and Retrieval model which easily explains how people learn and remember.

Alex and Ali introduced a range of practical strategies they use in order to aid students’ retrieval practice.

Ali explained how she used to teach topics in blocks, set topic specific home learning, use application questions related to the topic and then test at the end of block. This process was repeated for her to cover the content she needed to teach. Now, she is using retrieval practice in order to aid learning and memory of key concepts and knowledge. As a Maths teacher she has introduced ‘Ratio Tuesday’, ‘Throwback Thursday’ and Friday ‘Skills Check’. One of the key ideas which a lot of our teachers liked was ‘Throwback Thursday’ which included a question from last term, last week and last lesson.

Alex shared a range of ideas she uses with her classes. In English, she uses a range of images at the start of a lesson and asks students to explain how they link to a particular act in a text they have studied. She also writes a passage about a text but leaves blanks which she challenges students to fill in without using their text. Alex highlighted how useful some online sites can be in retrieval practice and mentioned Quizlet, Triptico and Factile. It was interesting to hear how Alex has changed elements of her planning in order to include greater opportunities for students to recall their knowledge from past lessons and content.

This series of blog posts are going to bring you a range of new T&L ideas from a range of different sources.

In the front of our ‘Essentials’ book you will find a range of different strategies you can use to reduce the time of marking but still ensuring effective feedback to students. It can be rare to see some of these strategies being used consistently which is why I was excited to see the example below. It was posted by Heather Mary James (@LDNHumsTeacher) using an ideas from @MrsHumanities.

The success of a strategy like this depends on making the dots subject or/and assessment criteria specific and using it consistently so students come to fully understand feedback and expect feedback to be delivered in this way. The strategy offers the opportunity to save hours writing the same feedback on KS5/ KS4 extended written answers.

This series of blog posts are going to bring you a range of new T&L ideas from a range of different sources.

Over recent months we have been highlighting different techniques which encourage students to retrieve knowledge they have learnt in the past.

I saw this idea on Twitter and it has been created by Kate Jones (@87History). The Retrieval Practice Challenge Grids can be used as a starter activity. If students pick a question which is linked to knowledge covered a week ago they get one point, if they pick a question covered two weeks ago they get two points etc. I would give them a set amount of time, maybe 5 minutes, to complete as many as they can and achieve as many points as they can.

This example is based on recapping and revising a History topic (Source: @87History).

This series of blog posts are going to bring you a range of new T&L ideas from a range of different sources.

The demands of the new KS4 specifications and the linear nature of these qualifications made me look for effective home learning tasks for my students. In particular, I was looking for tasks which supported their retention of knowledge and key terms. In my regular scan of Twitter I came across the profile of a Geography HoD called Jenn (@Jennnnnn_x) and these wonderful ideas.

This key term review sheet has a range of ideas for students to remember and use new terminology.

2. “Geog your Memory” The title of this task is very Geography centred and is quite detailed for one home learning task but it is one example of how you can get students to revisit past topics/ units.

3. Self – testing is a very effective way for students to revise and remember key content. This example shows a template for a Knowledge Test and the expectation is that the students fold over the answers and they re-test themselves over time. Knowledge Test Example

This series of blog posts are going to bring you a range of new T&L ideas from a range of different sources.

Number 1 – Structure Strips

These are an excellent way to offer help in structuring longer mark questions or responses. The strip is stuck into the margin of an exercise book page and has the exam question or task at the top.

The rest of the strip is used to guide the writing of the answer. This guidance can be bullet points taking the students through the content expected or a series of questions to help student thinking. The student then writes their response next to the structure strip so they can refer to it.